Anthony Spencer and Dallas Cowboys End Contract Talks

Anthony Spencer will become a free agent after the 2013 season, according to Pro Football Talk, after the veteran outside linebacker and the Dallas Cowboys decided to end negotiations to sign Spencer to a long term deal. Instead, Spencer will play this year on the one-year, $10.6 million franchise tender he signed earlier this year.

The Cowboys’ front office was basing their negotiations off of other contracts signed this offseason, specifically Elvis Dummerville’s $5 million/year contract with Baltimore, and Cliff Avril’s $7.5 million/year deal with Seattle.

In 2012, Spencer recorded 95 tackles and 11 sacks, both career highs by a long shot. However, I think the Cowboys would be wise not to sign Spencer to a contract based on those numbers. For his career, excluding last season, Spencer averages 53.2 tackles and 4.3 sacks per year. That, to me, is not worth another franchise tender for 2014, more or less a contract that nets Spencer a total of $20 million or more.

So it looks like this will be Anthony Spencer’s last year wearing the star. Seeing what he did in a contract year last year, that may not be such a bad thing. It looks like Dallas can get another year of great production from a guy who will then turn 30 and return to mediocrity elsewhere.

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The site is owned and operated by Jamie Plunkett, a TCU graduate with a B.S. in advertising and public relations. In short, he’s a sports junkie. Born and raised in Dallas, he grew up following Dallas sports closely and passionately. He created the Dallas Sports Rant as an opportunity to unleash his sports knowledge and bias on the rest of the world. He also performs a pretty excellent karaoke version of Ice Ice Baby.